Spike attachment for railway signal-fusees.



L. S. ROSS.

SPIKE ATTACHMENT FOR RAILWAY SIGNAL FUSEES.

APPLICATION FILED NOV-29.1918.

- Patented my. 1, 1019.

3 SHEETS--SHEET 1.

I N! 'EN'TOR.

A TTORNEY L. S. ROSS.

SPIKE ATTACHMENT FOR RAILWAY SIGNAL FUSEES.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 29.1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 4,1919.

AW l

WITNESS.-

SPIKE ATTACHMENT FOR RAILWAY SIGNAL FUSEES.

APPLlCATlON FILED NOV. 29. I918.

Patented Mar. 4, 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

INVEN TOR.

A TTORNEY.

WITNESS:

UNITED s'IATEs P TEN OFFICE.

LoUIs s. ROSS, or NEwToNvILLE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR 'ro CENTRAL RAILWAY I SIGNAL coI/ rAIqY, or rrrrsmmen, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION 01? NEW SPIKE ATTACHMENT For. RAILWAY sIGNAL-IUsrms.

3 Specification of letters Patent.

e Application ma November. 29, 1918. Serial No. 264,578

To all whom it may concern: I I

Be it known that I, LOUIS S. Ross, a citizen of the,United States, residing at tonville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented -cer-' tainn ew and useful Improvements in Spike Attachments for Railway Signal-Fusees, of

' which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to improvements in spike attachments for railway signal fusees,

and the object of the present invention is to spike for holding the fusee in an upright prevent'a waste of the chemical compound Within the fusee tube that is required by the method now in use of attaching the spike to the fusee tube. p

Railwav signal fusees primarily consist of a paper tube filled with a; chemical, and one end of the tube fitted with a lighting headand the other end of the tube fitted with a position by forcing the spike into a railroad tie or into the railroad bed.

In the manufacture of these fusees, the paper tubes are supported in groups within a suitable machine with the lighting end downward, and the chemical compound is placed in these tubes in measured quantifrom the plug endof the tube a depth sufficient to receive the plug, which is usually about an inch, and this is done by boring or drilling the compound from the tube to the necessary depth. The plug is then inserted within the tube and either cemented or tacked therein. This is the method that is universally practised for attachlng spikes to fusees and has been fora great many years. In the practice of this method, there is awaste of the chemical compound which is removed from the tube and it amounts to an enormous quantity. in a fusee factory Newwhere hundreds of thousands of fusees are constructed. I

Railway signal fu'sees and, as a consequence, their tubes are made of various lengths, ranging, for instance, from five to fourteen inches and, therefore, the amount of waste varies from one-fifth to.one-fourteenth of the whole quantity used in the manufacture of -the fusee, which is a very large percentage and runs into a large amount of money to the manufacturer.

It is well-known to those skilled in the art that railway signal fusees, are construct- Patented Mar. 4,1919.

ed to burn predetermined periods of time,

that is to say, usually fiye or ten minute fusees, though the time of burning may vary and, therefore, the length of the fuses usually varies according to the time it is to burn.

In carrying out my present improvement,

I so construct the spike attachment that itjis not necessary to remove any part of the chemical compound from the fusee tube and,

. as a consequence, the fusee and tubemay be made an inch shorter for burning a specified time than is now required, and there is 3 a saving of that part of the compound which must now be removed from the .fusee tube in the method of manufacturing them, in order tosaccommodate the fusee plug that is placed therein. This plug must be of sufficient length to give proper holding stability within the tube to withstand the lateral strain of the blow When the fusee. is thrown to cause the spike to enter either a railway tie or the bed of the railroad, and the length of the plug required tomeet these conditions has been found to'be about an inch in length. 1

compound which Variesfrom one-fourteenth to one-fifth of the whole amount, as heretofore stated, my improvement avoids theoperation and, therefore, the cost of removing the compound from the. end of the tube Which, however,'is very slight in cost ascompared to. the value of the wasted compound. R ferrmg now to thedrawings In addition to the saving of the chemical Figure 1 isa perspective view partly in I section, showingmy improved spike attachment applied to afusee.

. v 19.51 Fig. 2 is a partial longitudinal central sectional view of a fusee tube and of my improved spike attachment, the parts shown in separated relation. p

- Fig. 3 is a longitudinal central sectional tube showing my improved spike attach-- mentapplied to the fusee tube.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional View showing a modified form of plug and means of attachment embodying my present improvement.

Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, each shows 'modified forms ,of spike attachment which'v embody my present improvement.

In thepractice of my present improvement,

the fusee tube 1 will be made about an inch shorter than the fusee tube now provided for a 'fusee to burn a certain predetermined period of time, and this tube isfilled with a chemical compound 2, in a suitable-machine, as heretofore described, the tube being filled with the lighting end 3 down, as shown in My present improvement comprises a cap 4, adapted to fit outside of the spike end of, the fusee tube 1, and this cap carries a spike 5. In the form shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3,

- the cap is provided with a shallow wood plug.

'6, suitably fastened within the closed end .of g the-cap and through which the spike passes.

The cap is in this form fastened to the tube v by a suitable cement 7, preferably of a waterproof character.

My spike carrying cap is no more expensive than the usual plug carrying spike, and it preferablyconsists of a unitary structure to be appli to the fusee. tube, though the spike with shallow plug 6 may be placed in position on the twbe and the cap placed thereover, but that would mean additional care and time in apply-ring the improvement 1 as compared with having'it as a unitary structure.

In Fig. 4, the cap-4 is made. dome-shaped and the plug portion 6" is made 'of a corresponding shape to fit the cap. As shown in this figure, the'ca'p is secured to the fusee-bymeans ofsuitable tacks 8, which are driven through the cap and the tube into the chemical compound. v

When the chemical compound is placed within the fusee tube, it is in a granular or powder condition, but after it stands for a time it solidifies and. becomes sufliciently: solid to prevent the head 9 of the spike from being driven into the composition by the blow caused when drivin the spike into the object for sustaining the usee in an upright position. a

- The chemical compoundbeihg inia granular or powder form when it is packed into the tube 1, and the'plug end of the fusee being the filling end of the tube, the compound in the inlet or spike end of-the fusee is less tightly packed than in other portions of the fusee, because it has received less packing blows, and as a con-sequence at the filling end for, at least a short distance, the

compound is loose until it has stood sufii- .5, except that the cap is held in position by t'acksS, instead of by cement as in Fig. 5.

In Fig. 7, the plug 6 is composed of the form of plug shown in Figs. '3 and 5, in that it has the tapered flange 10 of Fig. 5, and

"the portion 10 which projects over the end .of the fuses tube 1. Also in this Fig. 7, the cap 4 is secured to the tube 1 by crimping the cap and the fus'ee tube, as shown at 11.

In this Fig. '7, also the cap 4 is an open ended tube and the plug 6 is constructed to form the closed end of the cap.

In Fig.8, I have shown a metal cap 12, and in this case the head 9 of the spike '5 is fastened to the cap by,crimping the cap around the-head of the spike,'as shown at 13, and in this figure the metal cap 12 is secured to the tube '1, by indented portions 14, so

shaped'th-at the capcan be forced on the 3 tube, but cannot be pulled from it.

' Fig. 9 is another slight modification. em-

bodying my improvement, in that the cap plug 15 1s made-of such a size that it can be forced slightly into the end of the fuses tube 3 1', as shown at 16, when the cap is applied to the fusee before the compound 2 at the plug end has become hardened. In this figure the cap is'shown attached to the fusee by means of tacks 17 Fig. 10 shows a capconstructed like that I shown in Fig. 5, and differs from Fig. 5 only in the'manner' of attaching the cap to the fusee tube bymaking indentations in the cap and tube, as shown at 18.

Fig. 11, shows a form of cap andplug, the i same as that-shown in Fig. 9, but shows the cap attached to the fusee by punches 19, that the cap which are made at an angle so cannotbe pulled therefrom.

Itwill be observed from. the several slight modifications of the capand the cap plug,

that in each instance it 1s applied to a fuses tube and is 'com-pletelyfilled with the-compound, or substantially completely filled 1 with the compound'at the'time the cap is applied thereto, as distinguished from applying the spike carrying member to tube from 1,see,5e1

which an appreciable quantity of the com- .pound hasbeen removed to accommodate the spike attachment.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A railway signal fusee having a Spiketo the outside of the filled end of the fusee tube.

3. The combination with a railway signal fusee tube substantially evenly filled with a burning compound, of a cap having a spike carrying plug within its outer end, the cap applied and attached to the filled end of the fusee tube.

' 4. The combination with a railway signal fusee tube substantially evenly filled withca burning compound, of a spike cap appliedto the filled end of the fusee tube, the cap having therein a spike carrying plug with an inwardly pro ect1ng flange, entering the compound at the filled end of the tube.

5. An improved railway signal fusee,

comprising a tube having an open filling end, a quantity of compound to burn a predetermined time and substantially evenly filling the tube, and 'aspike carrying attachment applied to the open filled end of the tube.

6. An improved railway signal fusee, comprising a quantity of compound to burn a predetermined time, a fusee tube of a length to just hold the quantity of compound and having a filling end, and a spike carrying cap applied'to' the filled open end of the fusee tube.

7. A railway signal fusee comprising a tube, a burning composition substantially evenly filling the tube, and a spike carrying member comprising a plug,and a cap projecting beyond the plug and telescoping the outer surface of the tube and forming attaching means to the tube beyond and independent of the plug.

8. A railway signal fusee comprising a tube, a burning composition substantially evenly filling the spike end of the tube, and a spike attaching member comprising a cap, a spike carrying plug within the cap, the cap projecting beyond the plug a distance substantially equal to the length of the plug for the purpose of telescoping the fusee tube and forming an attachment to the tube for holding the spike plug thereto.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my slgnature in the presence of two. witnesses.

Q LOUIS sf Ross.

Witnesses: Y

A. G. Samar, M. L. Cox. 

